Peter Todd Plans Punishment for Bitcoin Node “Garbageman” Attackers

Peter Todd, a leading figure in the Bitcoin development community, is preparing technical countermeasures to punish Bitcoin node operators who use “garbageman” software to filter out large data transactions from his Libre Relay service. The move comes ahead of a major change set for October, when the default Bitcoin Core mempool will allow OP_RETURN outputs of up to nearly 4 megabytes — a significant increase meant to enable corporate data storage on the blockchain.

Currently, the default settings of Bitcoin Core prevent transactions with OP_RETURN outputs larger than 83 bytes from being relayed by most nodes. By contrast, services like Todd’s Libre Relay and miner-focused pools like MARA Slipstream accept these non-standard, large transactions. In response to attempts to increase the limit, some node operators have deployed custom “garbageman” software that attacks and penalizes nodes broadcasting such sizable, data-heavy transactions.

“People who don’t like Todd’s Libre Relay accommodation of corporate data storage have created so-called ‘garbageman’ software that penalizes Libre Relay node operators who propagate such large transactions,” the original article reported. The garbageman nodes use a technique called a Sybil attack, where they impersonate Libre Relay nodes to drown out the propagation of large, non-standard transactions on the network.

Todd is actively writing code to help node operators identify and disconnect from garbageman nodes. He is employing mathematical methods originally developed by Greg Maxwell to estimate which nodes are engaging in these filtering attacks. His stated goal is to defend Libre Relay transactions and maintain the integrity of the upcoming mempool rules.

For background, the debate over how much data Bitcoin nodes should store has intensified in recent months. The conflict centers around the OP_RETURN field, a place in a Bitcoin transaction where extra data can be stored. For over a decade, Bitcoin Core kept the OP_RETURN data limit at 83 bytes. Venture investments in projects such as Citrea prompted a proposal, championed by Todd and supported by Chaincode Labs and Brink developers, to boost this limit closer to 4 megabytes.

Earlier proposals to raise the limit faced criticism, especially because some versions would have removed node operator control over the data size setting. After opposition, configurability was restored to the pending pull request, and support for the change grew. As a result, the new default is scheduled for Bitcoin Core version 30 in October 2025, which will stop filtering out large OP_RETURN transactions up to nearly 4 megabytes by default.

This adjustment will benefit companies wanting to add larger data payloads to the Bitcoin chain but has drawn concern from node operators who prefer to limit disk usage to actual currency transactions. Todd has stated his intention to continue defending his software and users from garbageman-style disruptions as the change approaches.

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